Merlot is one of the core red wine grapes, and one with an ancient heritage. Geneticists at the University of California at Davis believe that Merlot is a descendant of Cabernet Franc, which makes it a sibling of Carménère and Cabernet Sauvignon. It's one of the core wines traditionally used in a Bordeaux blend. In fact, Merlot is one of the most popular wines for not only various table red blends, but specifically, as a blended wine bottled as Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot, since the typically softer, more fruit-forward Merlot works well as a balance to the more tannic Cabernet Sauvignon. Moreover, if the early ripening Merlot is damaged by frosts, then the vintner can turn to Cabernet Sauvignon.

Merlot grapes are a dark blue-purple, with large clusters of grapes that tend to be larger, thinner skinned, more loosely clustered, and slightly sweeter than Cabernet Sauvignon. Merlot tends to do well in colder climates, and ripens slightly earlier than Cabernet Sauvignon, which makes it a convenient grape in terms of production. It is one of the most popular grapes, routinely in the top four in terms of world wide production, very close to Cabernet Sauvignon in terms of popularity, particularly during the late 1990s in the United States, where Merlot rapidly became a synonym for red wine. There were less than 2,000 acres of Merlot in California in 1985, but in 2003, there were more than 50,000. Merlot flourishes particularly well in Bordeaux, France, California's Napa valley and Sonoma county, and is widely planted in washington state, but Merlot's popularity seems to have taken a bit of back seat in the current century. I don't know if that's because of consumer frenzy for Pinto Noir, and consequent dislike of Merlot because of the quirky wine-snob centric film Sideways, or the fact that Merlot can be a difficult grape to grow between the dangers of early ripening and frost, and an affinity for fungus. Merlot, nonetheless, does have some true admirers, like Letti Teague, who describes a 2005 effort to evangelize Washington wineries, in hopes of persuading them to produce Merlot as a varietal rather than a blend base.

Merlot is still popular enough on its own that it's fairly easy to find a Merlot varietal from California, Washington, Australia, Chile, Italy, or France to suit both the under $15.00 buyer, and the person looking for that special Merlot for the perfect meaty red pasta sauce, or a perfectly cooked roast or prime rib. I'll be looking for affordable, and enjoyable, Merlots and Merlot-Cabernet Sauvignon blends.